


Reinforcements: The Appendices

by ShiieldMaidenofGondor



Series: Reinforcements [2]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, The Lord of the Rings - All Media Types
Genre: Action/Adventure, Companion Piece, Cross-Posted on FanFiction.Net, F/F, F/M, Family, First Meetings, Friendship/Love, Gen, One Shot Collection
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-05-14
Updated: 2016-05-14
Packaged: 2018-06-08 09:37:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,409
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6849211
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShiieldMaidenofGondor/pseuds/ShiieldMaidenofGondor
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Outtakes and deleted scenes from Reinforcements: tidbits surrounding family, romance, friendship, and everything in between.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Reinforcements: The Appendices

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome to the deleted scenes and outtakes from Reinforcements! You're welcome to read these without having read the big story first, but they'll probably make more sense if you take a gander at the original article first. 
> 
> This is where I'll be posting the scenes that didn't fit into Reinforcements - outtakes, extra prompts, and other stuff that I really wanted to write but that didn't work within the frame of the narrative. Please feel free to send me prompts!
> 
> I don't own Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings. If I did, I could afford to spend a lot more money on cosplay than I can at the moment. 
> 
> Enjoy!

For someone who had very recently had her entire life uprooted, Ginevra Molly Weasley thought she was handling her move to Middle Earth pretty well. She had yet to have a breakdown, she was getting comfortable in her new residence, developing relationships with her hosts, and Ginny, Fred, and George were getting lessons in everything from swordplay to Sindarin and that kept them busy enough to keep their minds off of anything that might send them off the rails. Ginny was handling this shit pretty well. 

That was, until she realized it was her birthday. 

She had that little bombshell of a realization during her daily lesson with Erestor. The elf lord had been tutoring her in Sindarin, teaching her how to read and write, to speak and communicate in the elvish language. They had been working on letters and sounds for a very long time, followed by basic greetings and other simple phrases for the last two months and  _finally_ , Erestor had decided that she was ready to move on. He had thought that dates and months would be a good place to start. 

Erestor wrote out twelve words and had Ginny read them aloud. She did pretty well with it, all things considered. The elf translated them for her, pairing the names she knew with these new ones, and had her recite them over and over until she could do it from memory. 

"Repeat after me,  _August eleventh_ ," he said once he was satisfied with her month memorization. Ginny obliged, though she was a bit confused as to why he chose that particular date for her to recite. 

"Why August eleventh?" she asked him in the common tongue. 

"That is today's date," he answered simply, turning back to his books and either ignoring or not noticing the way that Ginny froze. 

_August eleventh. August fucking eleventh._

It was her  _birthday_. It was her  _sixteenth birthday_. 

Erestor must have said something to her that she didn't hear, because all of a sudden, he was laying a hand on her arm and looking at her with concern that she usually didn't associate with the stern elf lord. 

"I'm sorry," Ginny cut off whatever he had been about to say and pushed her chair out from the table. "I'm not feeling well, I gotta go," she said, not even bothering to make an attempt to sound convincing as she backed out of the room, breaking into a run as soon as she made it into the hallway. 

_It was her birthday._

Usually, that little fact was a cause for celebration. Usually, Ginny would spend this day with her family, getting woken up early by Fred and George (back when he still lived at home, Charlie would join them) only for them to drag her downstairs - still in her pajamas - for breakfast. Usually, owls would swoop in through the window with gifts from friends and extended family and she would open them at the kitchen table, feeding Luna's barn owl little bits of waffle as a thank you and conveniently forgetting to give anything to Auntie Muriel's asshole of a screech owl. 

Usually, the morning and afternoon would be spent playing quidditch in the yard with her brothers (and Harry the last few summers), and dinner meant presents from her family and a beautiful cake from her mum complete with birthday candles that changed color the longer you let them burn. 

Usually, Ginny's birthday was spent at home with her family, but this time, she was about as far from that as she could get. 

She made it back to her bedroom and closed the door behind her, leaning back against it and closing her eyes tightly. She hadn't cried once since coming here, and she wasn't about to start now. She managed to pull herself together long enough to distract herself and two hours later, she'd had a nap and was attempting to read the elvish equivalent of a children's book when there was a knock on her door. 

"Yeah?" she called in response.

"Hey, Gin," Fred greeted his sister as he opened the door to reveal himself and his twin. 

"We just wanted to check on you," George said, the two of them making themselves comfortable seated on the foot of her bed. "Erestor said that you ran out of your lesson with him earlier."

"It's nothing," Ginny brushed it off, her tone of voice a bit closed off and distant.

"Why don't we believe you?" Fred asked, quirking a brow at his sister. 

"Please, Fred, just leave it," Ginny practically begged, a bit desperate now. This was  _not_ something that she wanted to talk about with her brothers. 

"Gin, you know you can talk to us, right?" George said gently. 

"Yes, George, I know, but that doesn't mean I  _want_ to, okay? Please just leave it," she repeated herself shortly, burying her face in her hands and just hoping,  _praying_ , that they would leave her the fuck alone. 

"Is there anything we can do?" Fred asked after a moment, tentatively placing a hand on his little sister's shoulder. Her only answer was to shove his hand away. 

"Gin, please, will you just tell us what's wrong?" George tried again, and Ginny snapped. 

"It's my birthday, okay?" Ginny finally said, propelling herself off of the bed and to her feet, turning around to face her brothers, her arms folded across her chest and her glare murderous. "You want to make me feel better? How about you apparate us back to the Burrow so that I can spend my sixteenth birthday with mum and dad? How about you go back in time and stop us from making this  _stupid_ decision to come here in the first place? How about-" Ginny cut herself off, screwing her eyes shut and taking a deep breath to calm herself down. 

"Ginny-"

"No, I'm sorry, I just- I can't talk about this right now," Ginny cut Fred off, storming out of her room and slamming the door behind her. 

She let her feet carry her out of the winding halls of Imladris and into the open air, through grounds and gardens all the way to the armory, which was blessedly empty of people. She blew into the building like a gust of wind - heavy breath and tousled hair from running and tears beginning to well up in her eyes. She slammed the door behind her and letting out a cry of frustration, she kicked at the wood, the hinges and locks banging with the force of her anguish. The tears were coming in earnest now, and she pounded on the door, slamming her fists against it and crying out, finally letting herself have the breakdowns she had put off for so long. 

She was  _so angry_. She was separated from her family, from her friends, from  _everything_ she knew, and she was just expected to take it with a smile. No, it was worse, she was expected to turn into some kind of war hero in this place, a perfect, courageous, and deadly weapon that she could  _never_ see herself becoming. She couldn't stand this. She was furious - at Dumbledore, at Gandalf, at Lord Elrond, Erestor, her brothers, hell, even  _hersel_ _f_ for getting herself into this goddamned mess. Ginny let that anger, that  _rage,_ fill her up as she cried, as she shouted, and as she abused the wooden doors of the armory, until she tired herself out, slumping against the door. She rested her forehead against the smooth wood, screwing her eyes shut tight in an attempt to fight back the tears and still clenching her fists with all her might. 

She couldn't do this. 

Unclenching her fists, she turned her back against the doors and let herself slide down them until she was sitting on the cool stone floor. Absently, she let her fingers run over the paving stones, up and down the grooves, and the repetitive motion began to calm her nerves. 

She  _was_ angry, that was true, but that was't all of it. She was homesick. 

Ginny was so,  _so,_ homesick. 

She missed her family so much. She missed her mum; her kind smiles, her hugs, her  _food_ , and her unwavering love. She missed her dad's support, his sparkplugs, his damn rubber ducks, and their late night shared cups of hot chocolate. She missed Bill and Charlie's teasing and their laughter. She  _almost_ missed Percy, and that was really saying something. She missed  _Ron_ , and she  _never_ thought that was possible. She missed playing quidditch and chess with him, she missed his stupid owl, and she missed teasing him about Hermione. 

_Merlin_ , she missed Hermione. There was  _no one_ here even remotely close to her age, no one she could talk to, no one she could relate to, and there are some things that you simply can't talk about with older brothers. She missed having  _friends_ , friends she could just sit around and talk with, friends she could laugh and cry with, friends who would sit around the fireplace in the Gryffindor common room until two in the morning on a school night, complaining about classes, relationships, and families. 

She missed Hogwarts. 

She missed staircases that would move every other Friday and that had disappearing steps. She missed paintings that would shout rude things at you as you walked by and suits of armor that would follow students they found particularly interesting. She missed the Fat Lady. She missed the stupid passwords that let her into her stupid common room and  _Merlin_ did she miss her common room. Rivendell was nice, but there was no competing with the plush armchairs and warm fireplace of Gryffindor tower. Ginny missed sitting around that fireplace, listening to Ron and Hermione bicker while she leaned against Harry's legs, throwing playfully exasperated glances back at him, sending him into fits of barely stifled chuckles. 

_Harry_. 

She missed him  _so_ much. Sometimes, that longing made her feel stupid - he had broken up with her, for Merlin's sake - but that didn't stop her from missind him, missing what they'd had. She missed the easy intimacy of their relationship. It had taken him awhile to get comfortable with it, but after they got together, it wasn't long before he was always holding her hand or had an arm around her waist. She missed that kind of casual affection that came with having someone to care about - someone to kiss and to hold and who would do the same for you. 

Fucking hell. 

Back home, when Ginny got in these moods, she would jump on her broom to clear her head. God  _damn_ it, some days she thought she missed quidditch most of all. Honestly, she could have seen herself becoming a professional player if she'd wanted to, maybe play for the Holyhead Harpies or something. That dream was so far out of her reach now that it was laughable. She didn't even have a broom here, let alone people she could play quidditch with. Merlin, even just a chance to fly would make her feel better. Just to escape, feel the wind on her face and the exhilaration of speed- but that was impossible here. Just one more thing for her to miss and mourn. 

Ginny was brought out of her thoughts and temporarily distracted from her grief by the sound of someone walking into the armory through the opposite set of doors. She looked up to see someone she hadn't met before, and she was pretty sure he wasn't an elf. No elf she had met would allow their hair to get that scraggly. Said scraggly hair was very dark in color and fell to the man's shoulders, framing a bearded face with kind eyes. Striding into the armory, a concerned look on his face, those eyes zeroed in on Ginny in a matter of seconds, though he did a good job of making it look nonchalant. 

"Hello," he greeted her, carefully approaching her slowly as one would a wounded animal, though he kept his tone fairly light. 

"'Lo," Ginny returned, wiping at her eyes with the sleeve of her shirt in a vain attempt to erase the evidence of her breakdown. 

"You must be one of Lord Elrond's new charges," he said conversationally, courteously turning his attention to a wall of bows to allow Ginny more time to compose herself. 

"I- uh, yeah. Yeah, that's me and my brothers," she confirmed. The man nodded in response. 

"I was housed here myself when I was a child," he said, and Ginny couldn't imagine why he was confiding in her, but his voice was calming. "The Lord Elrond raised me as if I were his own son," he went on, pausing to look over at her, his eyes open and honest. "I have no doubt that he will do the same for you and your brothers," he told her surely. She only shrugged and looked back down at her feet, swiping one sleeve across her eyes again. 

"I came here to work on my aim," he began to speak again, and Ginny looked up to see him gesturing to the quiver and bow slung across his back. "But," he continued, wandering over to the practice swords, "you look like you could use a sparring partner," he said, picking out two training swords, one a little shorter than the other. Ginny's face must have taken on a despairing expression because the man then adopted a small, reassuring smile. "Lord Glorfindel tells me that Elrond's new charges have begun training with swords and bows," he told her. "Is he a liar?"

"No," Ginny replied somewhat shortly. The man's smile grew a little wider. 

"I have found that sparring does wonders to clear my head," he stated, approaching her now, the two practice swords in one hand while he offered her the other. "It may help you, as well."

Ginny looked up into the face of this stranger of a man and felt an odd sense of security and hope. She felt safe around this man and she had no idea why. Maybe it was the easy and open nature with which he had talked about his own time in Imladris; maybe it was the honesty she detected in him; it may just have been something in his eyes. 

"What's your name?" Ginny asked him, looking up into those blue-grey eyes. 

"Aragorn," he told her after a moment. "And yours?"

"Ginny."

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! If you liked it, let me know with kudos or in a comment! There will be more of these as I finish posting Reinforcements, I promise. If you want to see something, send me a prompt!
> 
> Natalie out.


End file.
